The Comedy Cellar: Live from the Table - The State of Antisemitism with CEO of the ADL Jonathan Greenblatt

Episode Date: January 30, 2025

Noam Dworman, Dan Naturman and Periel Aschenbrand are joined by CEO of ADL, Jonathan Greenblatt and comedian, Modi. Jonathan Greenblatt is the CEO of ADL (the Anti-Defamation League), the world's leading anti-hate organization with a distinguished record of fighting antisemitism and advocating for just and fair treatment to all. Greenblatt joined ADL in 2015 after serving in the White House as special assistant to President Obama and director of the Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation. He is author of the book, It Could Happen Here: Why America is Tipping from Hate to the Unthinkable—And How We Can Stop. Voted one of the top 10 comedians in New York City by The Hollywood Reporter, Modi is one of the comedy circuit’s most sought after performers. Featured on HBO, CBS, NBC, ABC, Comedy Central, Howard Stern, and E! Entertainment, Modi has received rave reviews in The New York Times, Time Out NY and The New York Post.

This is Live from the Table, the official podcast of the world-famous Comedy Cellar, available wherever you get your podcasts, available on YouTube, and available on demand at SiriusXM. This is Dan Natterman, Comedy Cellar comic. I also work Comic Strip and Rodney's. I'm here with... You still work at Rodney's? Yeah, I was here a few weeks ago. I like these other clubs because I don't feel the same pressure.

Continue with the introduction. Go ahead. That was Noam. He's the owner of the Comedy Cellar. Four showrooms in New York. A fifth one coming at some point in 2025. By the way, this will be our most Jewish podcast ever, and that's saying a lot. Perry L. is, of course, with us as usual.

We have with us a very special guest jonathan greenblatt american entrepreneur corporate executive and the sixth national director and ceo of the anti defamation league and we also have a special guest unscheduled but he decided to stop by and we're happy to have him modi everybody it's modi uh just sold-out shows at the Beacon recently. Thank God. Yes. Wow, Modi. Modi also sang at Noam's father's funeral. Yes.

And at Noam's wedding. And at my wedding, yes. That's right. Wow. And so we are all here. And I'll take it away, Noam. I assume you brought Jonathan on for a specific reason. Well, so first of all, and for Modi. So first of all, you know, it was very nice of you

to sing at my wedding and the moment at my father's funeral. I haven't thought about it in a while. It was just past like the 20th anniversary of my father.

I know, yeah. So anyway, so thank you. That's a long time. A long time, yeah. Very long time. And can we start with a joke? A joke.

Can you tell the joke and then we'll get to the politics. The joke I whispered in your ear. Couple's having dinner. Over to the table walks a beautiful, beautiful blonde woman. Gives the husband a kiss on the forehead.

Says, Irving, I'll see you on Thursday. The wife says, who the hell is this? Says, this is my mistress. Your mistress? That's it, Irving. I want a divorce. Says, no problem, I'll give you a divorce. Just keep in mind, if we get divorced, there's no more penthouse on Fifth Avenue. There's no more summers

in the Hamptons. There's no more winters in Palm Beach. While he's explaining to her what life would be like if they got divorced, their friend George walks in with a brunette on his arm like you never saw. And the wife says, who the hell is George with? She says, that's his mistress. She says, ours is better. That's a mistress. That's a who-er. Anyway, all right.

Listen, Jonathan Greenblatt. It's a pleasure. Let me just shake your hand. Pleasure to meet you. Pleasure's mine. We're already getting along so well and having drinks and stuff like that. I don't want to get into an argument with you. Here we go.

Here we go. That was a very short honeymoon. I'm just going to say. No, I think this is all good. But I want to talk about the past of the ADL, the Anti-Defamation League. Maybe actually give people an overview of what the ADL is. I don't want to assume people know about this. Sure. Well, thank you for having me here today.

I mean, it's really a pleasure. So I'm the CEO of ADL. ADL is the oldest anti-hate organization in America. It was founded 112 years ago at a time when Jews in this country didn't have any of the privileges or rights that we really enjoy today. A hundred plus years ago, Jews couldn't buy homes in many parts of the country. They were legally prohibited from doing that. Legally, like-

You could write in your contract you wouldn't sell your home to a Jew. I see. Jews couldn't get- Covenants on property. Exactly, restrictive housing covenants. Jews couldn't get medical treatment in many places. You know, Mount Sinai Hospital, which is right around the corner from here, was founded by Jewish doctors in the mid 1800s because a Jew could bleed out in front of what we now call Cornell Presbyterian. They wouldn't let him in the door. So Jews had to create their own hospitals

to treat Jews because they couldn't get service at a non-Jewish institution. But what if William Shatner was bleeding out? He doesn't look that Jewish. That's a great point. It would be tough. Paul Newman, you don't know. But generally, it didn't take Jews. Jews couldn't get into many universities or quotas artificially kept their numbers down. You could deny service at your restaurant, your hotel, to

a Jew. I mean, it went on and on. In that environment, a man named Leo Frank, a Jewish New Yorker, went down to Atlanta to manage a family business that was a pencil manufacturing facility and while he was there managing the plant a young non-jewish girl was found sexually assaulted and strangled to death in the building and they immediately blamed the jew immediately and he was not only wrongfully convicted, he was sentenced to death for a crime he clearly didn't commit.

It was exculpatory evidence. Nonetheless, he was convicted. The governor intervened to commute his sentence to life imprisonment because he didn't have due process. And the mob was so enraged that they tore Leo Frank from his jail cell and they hung him from a tree. And while the body was still hanging from the rope, the town gathered around, the whole town, and they did a barbecue underneath the body, and they took pictures, which they turned into postcards. They're called Leo Frank cards.

You can still find them today in the South in antique stores. And they took the rope that they used to, again, hang him. They chopped it into pieces and they sold it off as mementos. The lynching of Leo Frank was a proud day in the South. And it's credited with reigniting the Ku Klux Klan. The other thing that it ignited really was the ADL. So ADL had been founded a couple years earlier during the trial. And we really, you know, were catalyzed by this horrible incident

let me be clear black people were lynched on a regular basis in the south and in ways that were brutal and horrible but this lynching of a jewish man really motivated the american jewish community and so when they created adl the founders they wrote a charter kind of like a like a jerry mcguire manifesto and in it they wrote the words that we still use today as our mission statement. They wrote that its purpose would be to, quote, stop the defamation of the Jewish people and secure justice and fair treatment to all. Now, like in our current like intersectional world, that may seem like it makes sense but a hundred and twelve years ago the Jews didn't have I don't know social standing you know cultural influence this is before the Lenny Bruce's and the Jerry Seinfeld's and the Milton Burroughs and like the creation of the culture that we know today as Americana

the Jews were a marginalized fragmented weak group were vulnerable. And the idea that these people would say, we'll defend ourselves made sense, but that we'll also defend others, that was an audacious and bold and kind of crazy thing to say. They didn't have a leg to stand on, but they created ADL with this idea that Jews will only be safe if everyone is safe. And unless everyone is free, Jews will not be free. And so this organization, ADL, on that basis, went on to help overturn the laws that kept Jews from buying homes, to break open the quotas that kept Jews out of universities, to expose the discrimination that kept Jews, again, out of restaurants or hotels.

ADL made America safer for the Jews. And then in the late 1940s, after the Second World War, ADL committed itself to the Civil Rights Movement. When ADL filed a brief in Brown v. Board of Education, the case that desegregated our schools in favor of desegregation,

it was a bold position. Many Americans supported segregation, but the leadership of ADL, my predecessors, said, no, our mission compels us, justice and fair treatment to all. So ADL stood up, and it nearly tore the organization apart, Noam. Jewish people said, this isn't our issue. The leadership of ADL said, you better believe it is. And standing up for civil rights, pushing for immigration reform, our organization stood for the LGBTQ community

during the HIV AIDS crisis in this country. When again, people were afraid of gay people, ADL said justice and fair treatment to all. So I'm proud to be the custodian, the steward, the guardian of this really incredible legacy. That's a huge legacy. And you left nothing for the rest of the podcast. There's a huge legacy. And you've left nothing for the rest of the podcast.

Where are you going to chime in? You gave it all away already. You gave everything away. I just want to add, just before we get to the more serious stuff, Dan, can you just give us a list? Because he talks about Jews in the 30s and 40s, how it was difficult to be Jewish. Dan is an expert at all the

original names of the household name Jews. Give us a list, Dan. I'm excited. I didn't know I was an expert in that. You know everyone. Woody Allen. Well, Alan Konigsberg. Tony Curtis.

Something Schwartz. Bernard Schwartz, I think. Burt Lancaster. Do the ones you know. Burt Lancaster's not Jewish. Who do you know? Come on. I love this. who is a Jew

I think Warren Bacall that was a real name really oh Dan come on Harrison Ford you always do this you know the one who knocked your head

give me one and I'll give you the name I don't remember who you know who do you know Phyllis John Stewart John Stewart Leibowitz but who are the older ones Milton Berle he's one Ralph Lauren John Stewart. John Stewart Leibowitz.

But who are the older ones? Milton Berle. He's one. Ralph Lauren. Milton Berle, I don't know. Milton Berle was Stuart. Milton Berle was Milton Berle. No, he wasn't, but I don't think that was his name. His hand is so frustrating because he usually just rattles these off.

So he's not on that tonight. It's passive aggressive. Anyway. By the way, I should mention, you mentioned Leo Frank that Candace Owens is still promoting the notion that Leo Frank was guilty.

She's a revolting racist and a really awful person. Actually, so let's go back to this. So I used to have a beef with the ADL. And actually, what you're saying now partly explains it.

I used to think to myself, why are they in bed with the intersectionalists, with Kendi, with Robin DiAngelo? Why does their heat map show all these assaults of Jews in Brooklyn and in all the bright blue neighborhoods, but they're constantly talking about Trump being an anti-Semite. And I'll let you respond. But one thing I think you're describing, at least I could understand it from a human point of view, is that these causes were so important to us as Jews.

I mean, every Jew of my age knows that these were the priorities in our households, not, you know, civil rights. That it was easy to get carried along and not actually realize, oh, it's time to get off this train right now. This is just continuing and continuing, and the cause may not be as righteous as it once was. That Ibram Kendi and Robin DiAngelo and Kimberly Crenshaw, the intersectionality, these are actually not only not causes we want to fight for, but they actually don't like us. Well, look, this is a lot to unpack. Yeah, go ahead. So look, number one, I mean, it's not ADL that gets credit for this idea that the Jews should fight for other people. Like it's Hillel that said,

if I'm not for myself, who will be? But if I'm only myself, what am I? Amen, anili, mili. Ve'imen ni lo le'atzmi. And if I'm not for myself, ma'ani, what am I? Ve'im lo achshav, emata. And if not now, then when?

Bravo. I did advertise our most Jewish episode. I don't think I was exaggerating. So look, I'm very impressed. I couldn't do it in the original Hebrew, but I think the point is truly that that's a very Jewish value of fighting for the other because we know what it's like to be a stranger.

This is a very Jewish idea idea now that being said like we're not we number one i've never called trump an anti-semite he has a jewish son-in-law a jewish daughter jewish grandchildren so i think there are some paradoxical elements but the adl criticized him for you know engaging in jewish tropes. Look, I've criticized. And to be frank, I don't. Look, let me just say one thing right now. It's for you guys.

It's for the listeners. Like, I don't play for the red team or the blue team. My job is to be the umpire and call balls and strikes no matter who's standing at the plate. You were playing. Not you. The ADL was playing for the blue team. Maybe not now, but they were. Well, I try very hard to focus not on politics,

but on principles. And let me tell you one thing for clear, like I will stand up no matter who it is. If you are a bigot or a racist or an anti-Semite, I will come at you with knives, you know? And I'm not gonna hold back. That being said, we're living in a moment where it's Jews who have been the ones who've suffered tremendously from this whole DEI industrial complex. I think, without

naming names, the people who force our kids to play in the oppression Olympics and choose team oppressor, team oppressed, everybody loses in the oppression Olympics, particularly the Jews. And these programs that, that in theory promote diversity, equity, and inclusion, when they allow bigotry and exclusion of Jews, I have a big problem with that. So I've been outspoken about it. I don't pull my punches. So why don't you get these local ADL chapters to get... I'm looking at now Ta-Nehisi Coates, Michelle Alexander. I've been pretty outspoken on Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Like, you can read what I've said, and you can read what we've said as an organization. No, these are the recommendations of these chapters. The 1619 Project. So I think what we're talking about are- Kimberly Crenshaw. It goes on and on. And there's no similarly right-wing things. Look, like so.

Lower the hammer on these people. So a few things. So number one, like I definitely don't believe in the kind of equivocation. Oh, you got to do this. You got to do that. Like this is not for me. This is not for us. My job isn't right and left.

It's right and wrong. Who's criminally difficult? Most of you, let's just know who these people are you talking about. Fair point. Who is, all these people you've been naming, do people just know who they are? Yeah.

Kriminey Crimson's not Christmas? What's Kriminey Crimson? People do know, but it also tells us a lot about the people who are writing the lists. True. Okay,

but so tell me who Kriminey Crimson is. Kimberly Crenshaw. What does she want? You can tell them. So, Ibram Kendi wrote this book how to be an anti-racist he's a professor at bu i could write that book i like that i would like to hear the sequel um

by modi ladies and gentlemen no so he is i got some views and that we don't agree with okay robin d'angelo who noah mentioned wrote this book about called white fragility and kind of the list goes on and on and at the end of the day the bottom line is look i'm a i will fight racism with every fiber of my being but my job is to protect the jewish people and the anti-semitism comes from not just the right but also the left. The antisemitism comes not just from the people who show up with swastikas, it also shows up from people who claim to be virtuous and yet the only country who they find unvirtuous is Israel. So right or left, my job is right and wrong

and I would encourage all, I think all of my people believe that. With respect to the books you're talking about, maybe we have work to do. And I'll own that, and what I'll do is commit right here in the Comedy Cellar to do better. Be right at the story. I believe you would.

I've already taken the measure of you, sort of, and I can tell where you're coming from, and I can see how it happens. But it's so upsetting that these voices are still being treated with respect. Because they are really... Maybe, I don't know. So at the time that Trump said, for instance, you know, something like, I don't understand why Jews are voting for Democrats

rather than supporting Israel. We're the party that supports Israel. And people were saying, oh, Trump's engaging in accusing Jews of dual loyalty and he's engaging in anti-Semitic tropes. And I'm like, no, he's saying what every Israeli I know is saying privately. It's like, why are these Democrats in bed

with the people who who don't this is before before october 7th right yeah and sure enough after october 7th all the people we expected to they they immediately on october 8th were attacking israel the people that the jews were fighting for blm right look so a couple things. So number one, I would definitely tell you that ADL has gigantic, insoluble problems with BLM. The people who are posting pictures of- Who's BLM? Black Lives Matter. Black Lives Matter.

So I believe deeply and profoundly that Black Lives Matter. But the Black Lives Matter movement that again would fetishize and sort of elevate these disgusting terrorists from Hamas who butchered and raped and murdered innocent people. I want nothing, not now, not ever to do with them. Well, I don't know that everybody feels that way,

but make double underline like exclamation point, nothing, not now, not ever. And I do think it's fair to say that ideologues and activists have sort of seized the narrative and they have warped it in ways that are not just bad for the Jews, no, but bad for America. These people are not just anti-Semitic, they're anti-Western. And look, I am a ferocious and unapologetic Zionist. But Israel aside, I think America has been the greatest country in the history of the human race for the Jewish people.

It has delivered so much to us. So the people who hate the Jews happen to also hate America. They're my enemies, you know, from A to Z. You want to say something, Modi? No, no. So where are you now? Do you think that Trump is or has ever been anti-Semitic or a promoter of anti-Semitic ideas?

I mean, look, I'm not a fan of the Proud Boys. I'm not a fan of the Oath Keepers. I'm not a fan of many of the people who he pardoned on January the 6th. By the way, they're not fans of us either. I can tell you they're not listeners of the Comedy Cellar podcast. No, the pardons, especially of the people who are violent towards cops, are an outrage. I don't see it as a Jewish issue, but I...

It's not a Jewish issue. So, like, I'm less interested in trying to psychoanalyze President Trump and what's on his heart and his head. What I am interested in, and I'll judge him by, are his actions. And, you know, he is the man who got the Abraham Accords done. He is the man who signed this executive order about anti-Semitism.

He is the man who recognized the reality that our embassy should be in Jerusalemusalem the israeli the u.s embassy should be in jerusalem he is the man who recognized the golan heights as a part of israel so like i give him credit for all they named the town after him in israel so but there's not much of a town to be honest with you but then where he has not much of a town so where are we now then on what many people call a hoax a hoax may be the hoax the the the two the very fine people people call it a hoax the the idea that it wasn't a hoax that he was yeah i but he was what but but that he was praising um the white supremacist at charlottesville i don't i don't know he i don't use the word hoax but i think he he got a bum rap considering that he explicitly

Let me put it to you like this. Let me put it to you like this. That happened in August of 2017. Do you remember when that happened? Sure. It's hard to believe it was that long. Oh, yeah. I remember it very well.

It's August 2017. Yeah, okay. He had three years and several months to clarify what he meant. I don't remember that happening. I don't remember in the following three years he's saying, you know what, for you people who misheard what I said, let me be clear. That never happened, Noam?

No. So look, as far as I'm concerned, he got on the record and he never chose to correct that record, even if everyone else was wrong about what he said. That's not his nature. I'm not defending him. That's not his nature. I'm not defending him. That's not his nature. Look, the press secretary didn't clarify.

The comms office, the White House comms office, nobody clarified. But when I play for people, the part of his remarks where he says, listen, I'm not talking about the Nazis and the white supremacists. They should be condemned unequivocally. They say, oh, I didn't know he said that.

There definitely was horrible relaying of information by journalists and people who had a stake in an agenda to elide that part of his remarks. And they were essential to a fair understanding of what he said. I'm not saying what he said was great, but he definitely didn't say what they accused him of. Tell us of what he said. I'm not saying what he said was great, but he definitely didn't say what they accused him of. Tell us all what he said.

What? Tell us what he said. I just said he- The very fine people on both sides. Right. He was referring to, it seems like, I think this is a fair interpretation, of the people who were defending

their Confederate soldier monuments and things like that, which we know there are Southerners who feel that this is their culture. Yeah, but there are also black people from the South who are not so thrilled with that part of the culture. No, no. Recently on my podcast, while we were having the podcast, I came to this conclusion.

It hit me what it is. In Kabbalah, in the study of mystical, there's a… Did I say no religious mumbo jumbo? No, no. No, you didn't. The most Jewish. No, I'm sticking with Dan's most Jewish. There's a concept called mati velo mati.

It's two things that completely contradict each other but exist at the same time. Yeah. Right? And Trump is that. Trump, at that inauguration, had some guy doing what looked like a Nazi gesture at the same time had Israeli hostages on the same stage everybody walked away

happy everybody walked away happy white supremacists was this a day for us Jews was this a day for us everybody what mat mati below mati. It all, it's exactly, they can say, he said we're fine people, and we can say he moved the embassy. They can say. No, no. If he's calling white supremacists fine people, that's not acceptable.

If he's calling Nazis fine people, that's not acceptable. It's just not. But obviously it is because he's the president now. No, but I don't think he said that. And as far as it's an interesting issue, we're getting sidetracked here. But, you know, if you look at the Japanese, they still lionize their heroes from World War II. It's very normal on a human level.

The Nazis, the Germans are really the only ones who managed to not do it. That regardless of whether your ancestors have done terrible things, they're still your ancestors. Yeah, but like, I don't want, like if the next generation of Gazans lionize Hamas, we all have a problem. So I just don't, I hear what you're saying

that that can often happen, but like to me, it's flat out unacceptable. It's unacceptable, unacceptable it's unacceptable but it doesn't i i'm not disagreeing for instance the senator jim webb he used to say he was a democrat i think he used to say former naval academy grad he said the confederate flag doesn't just mean that the confederate flag means something to us southerners it's who we are something like that and i said you know what I don't like the sound of that, but I know you're not a racist, Jim.

He's saying, like, this is, without the Southern identity, we don't have an identity anymore, and this is difficult on a human level. And so when Trump says, listen, there are these people fighting for the Confederate monuments, there's fine people on both sides.

I can live with that, meaning I don't agree with them. I think they're wrong. But I'm not going to say they're horrible people. They are people. Well, I hear you know them. I don't want to interrupt you. But Nazis, no. Those are not fine people.

But let's go back to that weekend in August of 2017. Remember the tiki torches? Yes. Remember the people chantings will not replace us was trump referring to them when he said fine people that's what do you know i mean do we know it's pretty clear that he wasn't i think it was all very fuzzy i think there were ample opportunities like again over the next i don't know three and a half years to clarify and it never happened by the way it's been more than three and a half years since then and i still don't recall him

ever saying, this is what I meant. So at the end of the day. He's not saying that, because he moved on from there and he left those people happy. And without getting Kabbalistic myself, I think something Modi's saying really resonates, which is we gotta move on.

So I wanna focus less on what he said eight years ago and more on where are we right now and where are the Jewish people right now? Because in all honesty, the Jewish people, it is an inferno of antisemitism, what we're seeing in America and around the world, and that's where we need to focus. So let me play you a clip

that got a lot of traction lately. Can you bring up the Ari Shaffir clip? You know who Ari Shaffir is? Ari Shavit, I know, Ari Shaffir is Ari Shavit I know he's a Jewish comic Eli Lake is a big fan of his I know Eli none of it's really happening and he said

and this was in Howie Mandel's podcast and Howie Mandel asked him how do you react to all the all the anti-semitism that's everywhere these days and this is what he said. And I'm wondering what your reaction to it is. Okay.

Go ahead. About a minute long. Go ahead, Tiana. None of it's really happening. Are you fucking kidding me? I've been all over the country. I've seen no actual anti-Semitism. Have you?

You look Jew. You walked around, people yelled Jew at you or something? I don't go out. Yeah, good point. I don't go out. I did. I yelled Jew at him this morning. Yeah.

No, no, no, no. I think it's real. I think we gotta take it seriously. I think what you're saying is wrong. No, it's being on the news. Are you familiar with the, what's that app that tells you all the robberies in your neighborhood? Citizen. Citizen app. So before this app, everybody was having a

great time in their neighborhood. And then suddenly all these housewives are like, there's a robbery every 20 minutes. I can't believe everything's going to shit they're just aware of it suddenly the small percentages it's a little bit in colleges you don't go to it's not it's not there it's statistically irrelevant i go all over the country i've never seen any anti-semitism are you on a college campus no i'm not go over to usc today i'm not on a college campus. Nobody I know is. Students are. They're just dumb.

No, you're wrong. Oh, you're really wrong. You're really wrong. Bro, if you shut the laptop, you'll never see it. You'll never know it exists. Oh, I believe that you can hide from it. I believe that you can be. I think that's enough.

I've never seen a single thing. It's just a citizen app. It's just... Okay. It's kind of like saying, I don't see the curve, so why do I know that the world,

that the earth is round? You know, I will say... Sorry. I mean, it's crazy talk. Like, ADL is a very data-driven, evidence-based organization, and I understand this person

who I don't know... He doesn't see it, but... ...has a particular lived experience, but that doesn't, like he could say, well I've never been to the Sudan. How do I know that's a real place? So what would you say? I've never met a Sudanese person. How do I know it's a real country?

What would you say to him to disabuse him? The ADL has been measuring anti-Semitic attitudes since the early 1960s, for more than 60 years. And in the, what does that mean? It means we do sort of attitudinal surveys of or sentiment analyses of the general population, non-Jewish. Okay, so if he's not gonna look at your data,

it doesn't exist. I get that. That's what I'm saying to you. He doesn't get, where is he? He's in the green room of a club or a theater. But he reads the paper. I mean, he has a comedy show called Jew. But he doesn't.

But can I'm telling you, but I understand what he's saying. He's former. He doesn't see it. He was a cynic. Never mind what, he grew up Orthodox. So I understand what he's saying.

He doesn't see it. We, me and Leo, don't allow television, CNN or Fox in the house. We don't get any. So we don't live through the news cycles. So he's also, that's what he's saying. But people listen to him.

And they say, well, he's a well-known Jew. Okay. So we need to have an answer to it. So let me give you the answer. Yeah. So long story short, in the last five years, intense or elevated anti-Semitic attitudes have reached the highest levels we've seen since the 1960s when we started doing this work. How are these measured?

So we do, again, what I would call a sentiment analysis. We work with the University of Chicago's National Opinion Research Center. You survey a representative group of individuals to understand their attitudes towards Jews. You don't say to them, do you like Jews? You ask them a lot of questions and buried in there are the answers you are looking for. So if individuals agree with, not say like, oh Jews, like a simple misconception about Jews, oh Jews are cheap, or, Jews, I don't know, own the banks. If they agree with a critical mass of tropes or myths about Jews, we consider that elevated antisemitism. In, let's say, 2019, roughly 11% of the US population had elevated antisemitic attitudes. By the way, that's a lot of people. Nonetheless, it's within the range we would expect. In 2022, the number went from 11 to 20%.

When we did the study last year, 24%. So in five years, from 11% of the population having elevated anti-Semitic attitudes to 24%, more than double in five years. Would somebody who thinks that Jews own Hollywood be considered elevated anti-Semitism? If you think Jews own Hollywood and Jews are cheap and Jews are responsible for all the world's wars and Jews are not loyal to the United States and so on and so forth, you'd have to go with a large critical mass of those myths. Can I just say, by the way, regarding Ari's, what he said, I mean, you know, I have a similar experience. I mean, I typically, when I do shows outside of New York,

the audience is mostly not Jewish. And I'm always a little frightened, to be honest with you, especially because I read Twitter all the time. And you just, there's just hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of tweets that are just the most violent anti-Semitism you can imagine. I said, well, some of these people must make their way onto a Princess Cruise.

I did a show in South Dakota, and there wasn't a Jew within 100 miles of the place. And I did a great job, and they loved me. And a couple of people after the show asked me, are you a Jew? Which is an inelegant way of phrasing it. But I didn't sense any malice on their part they're like i said yeah they said really wow like seinfeld i mean 40 percent of americans four zero percent of americans have never met a jewish person before 40 so if you're here in the village you think well everybody knows a jewish person but like is that really true yeah

40 of amer Americans have ever met a Jewish person. So a Seinfeld rerun, like George Costanza, is as close as they get for four out of 10 Americans. That's a lot of people. It's sad.

Oh my God. So the point is I didn't really sense. So that's the thing. That's what creates it. You see, so when they see Jews to them

is Larry David looking for an extra egg for his omelet in his club or whatever the scenes are. They don't understand that there's other Jews in the world that are like handsome, good looking Jews. You're talking about me? Yeah, yeah, yeah. About us. They think it's all Larry David looking for an extra egg in his omelet. Look, I can't speak. Michael Rappaport said that to us.

Remember that he was like, I don't want to perpetuate this stereotype. Right. Well, I would say. Let me tell you something else. So we have attitudes. The ADL also tracks incidents. So since the 1970s, we've been systematically counting the number of calls we get about acts of harassment or vandalism or violence.

So this is real-world stuff, and every call that comes in to us, we investigate. That's very important. So it's amazing that you have the two polar opposites. He's not looking for anti-Semitism, and this is the height of looking for anti-Semitism. Well, I would characterize it not looking, but like... Mati velo mati.

Listening, listening. Mati velo mati. There you go. Wow. Is that... Yeah, yeah. Look at thatlo mati. There you go. Wow. Is that? Yeah. Yeah. Look at that.

There's a lot of Jewish right there. How much has it risen since October 7th? So if I go back to say 2015, we had about 900 plus antisemitic incidents that year. In the year of 2023, we had about 9,000. Wow. So again, I don't know this fellow, Ari Shaffir, but I can tell you the stuff that we measure and verify.

Everything that we report, we have verified. So from 900-ish to 9,000 in like eight years. And in the 12 months since October the 7th, in the 12 months since October the 7th, more than 10,000 incidents. And in the 12 months since October the 7th, in the 12 months since October the 7th, more than 10,000 incidents. So again, I don't know this guy. He doesn't know apparently any college students or whatever.

But the reality is is that I can tell you that most American Jews have felt the anti-Semitism since October the 7th. Like, actually, let me pause here for a second. So he's saying felt or heard of. That's also a thing, felt or heard of. That's also a thing. Felt or heard of. So what's the difference you think? So if you all day long, you're on Instagram listening to Jewish for this and Jewish for that. I'm on Instagram looking for Modi videos.

I'm just going to say. Oh, thank you. I'm just going to say. So he's basically saying he doesn't have that. His feed doesn't have that. I know him. He's a comics comic. He feed doesn't have that. Okay. He's following, as I know him, he's a comics comic. He's following every other comic, right? He's not following the Jewish Stand With Me project

and all the Bring Them Homes and all of that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is in my mind. So it's not in his face like it is in our face. So he's saying it doesn't exist. He takes it in extra measure as one does so that it gets viral, right? But he's saying, I don't see it.

Yeah, like I don't want to criticize him. I'm simply saying his sort of lived experience is very different than the Jewish college students who I talk to who tell me they are changing their names in their Uber app or in DoorDash so they don't sound Jewish. His experience is very different than the individuals I've told me who tell me they observe in Jews who say, we wear a baseball cap and go outside today, so no one can see I'm wearing a kippah. I'm talking about Jews, not like in North Dakota. I'm talking about in- South Dakota.

South Dakota, forgive me. I'm talking about in like midtown Manhattan. I'm talking about the Jewish people who tell me that like I was at Miriam's in Park Slope last night. Do you know why? Do you know Miriam's? It's a great Israeli-owned restaurant in Brooklyn. It's been around for 20 years.

It was vandalized over the weekend. Somebody spray-painted, like, what is it? Like, Jew's steel cuisine and genocide food and other, like, ridiculous things. So I'm sorry. Like, again, I'm not arguing with this specific person's lived experience, but we gotta get off of Instagram and into the world, and in the world where I live, antisemitism, anti-Zionism, it is literally creating

kinetic consequences that people are living with every day. Noam, can I ask you, I was just in Las Vegas, doing the Comedy Cellar in Las Vegas, located at the Rio Hotel newly renovated um this was the most Jewish show in Vegas I've ever been on it was me Noah Garden Swartz um Nicole Amy Schreiber Mark Cohen and Eric Newman and you had Greer on Greer's a black guy but he has a Jewish stepfather was this how did this happen was this uh an oversight on the part of the bookers of the Vegas room? Absolutely not.

I don't even know how to answer that. So let me... I'll answer that for you. I'm going to say, usually the shows are more of a mixed grill. But that's not a Jewish show. That's a show with comedians who happen to be Jewish. Right. show that's that's a show with comedians who happen to be jewish right if it was uh if it was jewish comedians people that go up there and talk only about jewish stuff through a jewish

vision and jewish world through a portal of a jew of a jew then it would be a jewish show it wasn't it was comedians who happen to be jewish, I want to talk a little bit about the atmosphere that you're describing because I would have to say that many people would say, well, if you're complaining about Israel's genocide, that's not anti-Semitism. First of all, it's not a genocide. The blood libel of it. I'm saying people, yeah, I don't, believe me,

the genocide charge makes me insane. I'm so angry about it. It should. It's ridiculous. But people who can be wildly misguided are not only wildly misguided because they're in the throes of anti-Semitic illusions, just like there are people who have these ridiculous pro-Putin views, but there's no equivalent of antisemitism for a ridiculous attitude about ukraine so so i i much of it could be anti-semitism but of course the entire younger generation

is in the throes of this left-wing political view of the world and um it's anti-semitism or it's not but nobody can deny this before october 7th i get i gave a whole answer about it on some podcast i was already getting people commenting to me in the olive tree we have a star of david in the olive tree which when i was a kid it was like a um an italian flag at a pizzeria just an ethnic symbol yeah and i noticed sometime around seven eight years ago people saying oh good for you meaning like you're not afraid you know i began to sense a change in the atmosphere. And I remember I used to wear a Tel Aviv University T-shirt, and somehow it seeped into me, I don't know anymore.

And then, of course, you could not put a flyer up for any Jewish cause around New York City without expecting it to be ripped down. That's these things. These are real things. And I think that Ari is wrong if he doesn't understand that it's not being Jewish now is not what being Jewish was in 1975. It has changed in some very profound way. And he later in that segment, he talks about they think another

Holocaust is coming. And he's right. I don't think another Holocaust is coming. But just simply not to be able to live in the unashamed way that we did 25 years ago, that my kids who are young, 13 and younger, understand that being Jewish is an issue. I didn't have that concept. My father would try to convince me, and I'm like, what's he talking about? There's nothing he could say to really convince me of it because nothing in my life reflected it. Where'd you grow up?

In New York City in the New York Arts League. But then, so having said all that, I think Ari is missing how that's changed. But I also want you to think about North Dakota, and then I'll stop. Because this has followed me for a long time. Many years ago, I noted that if the Democratic Party, where all the Jews were, if that party

were simply to become as pro-Israel as the Republicans I'm sorry, strike that Tiana, if the Republican Party were simply to become as pro-Israel as the Democratic Party was, support for Israel would collapse in the United States of America and we'd be in big, big trouble. back and indulged their social justice id among the Democrats while the Republicans were the bulwark. They were the party which was 90, 95 percent pro-Israel. You wouldn't see anti-Semitism in North Dakota because that's not where the anti-Semitism is. If you look at the heat map of the ADL, I have it. Can you bring it up, Tiana? It's not in Trump country there's that put it up there's that it's not in red

this is all in urban areas this is you you can look at every one of those dark green circles and say that's an 80 percent democratic area so for them and I'm almost and this frustrated me that with my frustration with the with the ADL like why are you guys not coming out and calling it for what it is anti-semitism is an urban epidemic it's not trump country you got to search far and wide to find jews being mistreated in north dakota it's in brooklyn yeah it's in los angeles it's in the areas of boston you can look you can look at the map it's in portland it's in Seattle. You can see it on the map right there. The whole flyover state, barely. So, and it's very upsetting that the, let's put it frankly,

the people who we, you described, that we concerned ourselves with, at some point they turned against us. And I think the ADL polls show this, that minority communities are two, three times more anti-Semitic or or have issues, they feel differently

about Jews than other people do I don't know if they hate Jews, I don't want to cast too much aspersion at them but there is definitely a difference in the way certain communities feel about Jews to other communities feel about Jews and we need to handle this head on and I have another a difference in the way certain communities feel about you to other communities feel about Jews and we need to Handle this head-on and I have another thought too, but I won't let you answer so a couple things

Yeah, so can you go back to the map and just put the map on the screen? So for everyone's benefit at least in the room and the listeners. This is the ADL heat map. It tracks hate extremism anti-semitism and terror Heat the heat map. This is data over the last 25 or such years. That's looking at different kinds of incidents. The green is antisemitism. I think the blue is extremism.

The red, I think, is terror acts, et cetera. So there is absolutely a correlation, a tight correlation, between Jewish population centers and anti-Semitism. So we don't have anti-Semitic acts in South Dakota where there are no Jews. Well, some of those places, there's no people. This looks like my touring map.

If you saw my tours, this is exactly what my... This is Florida. We're coming to Florida. We have Chicago. This is literally my boring math. Some of these places, there's no people. I certainly don't expect coyotes to. We don't expect that.

They act isometric. You've got the Mojave Desert there. That's true. And I guess- So the first point to build on what Noam is saying, or to respond to what Noam is saying, is it's absolutely true. New York, New Jersey, Florida, Los Angeles,

these were the most anti-Jewish acts. And that's where the Jews are. So that's the thing. It ain't Trump or Biden or Kamala. You're saying it's us? No, I'm saying, well, that's a good question. I mean, I think it's also fair to say this is incidents, not attitudes.

But like where Jews are is where acts happen against jews so the fact that voting patterns are what they are doesn't change the fact that look there are a lot of incidents in texas and florida where there are a bunch of jews in dallas houston and south south florida i mean that is so i just want to say i don't think that's a political representation that's just a simple fact that's number one and number two like look at the end of the day i'm not going to argue i'm not going to defend blm that went on the attack against us i'm not going to defend by the way like it was in chicago where they had a queer march they was

called uh i don't remember what it was called and they said no basically said no zionist it was the dike march thank you the dike march And they were like, no Jews allowed. I will bring in a Rick Crome joke. He said, that was because of violence. He says, if you have a parade, when you mix Jews and gays, you don't get violence, you get Broadway. We need more Broadway. We need more Aladdin. We need more Aladdin.

Okay, so. Unless, if he said it again. No, no, I was going to say, let me just finish this thought. Of course. So it's certainly true that we have seen these moments which have been ugly and indisputable, but at the same time, the truth is known,

we can never build walls that are high enough. We've also got to build bridges. I mean, for the listeners, Jews are only 2.4% of the U.S. population. If we think we can fight anti-Semitism alone, we're out of our minds. So I am not being so precious to say we can only work with, quote, unquote, traditional civil rights allies. We need to work with evangelicals. We need to work with people from the Church of Latter-day Saints. We need to work with Republicans and Democrats and African-Americans and anyone who's willing to work with us.

That's what I think really matters here, that Jewish people have a commitment to justice for all, and we need to work with all to have justice for ourselves. It says here, Gallup poll for 2023, 49% of Democrats sympathize more with Palestinians while 38% sympathize more with Israelis, which is not anti-Semitism, but this is just a... And Republicans, in contrast... It's just deranged. Contrast, 78% of Republicans sympathize with Israel, whereas only 11% sympathize more with Palestinians.

My point is, if the Republicans, we we Jews can't stand the Republicans, if they became like the Democrats, 49 percent pro-Palestinian, you would have the country, basically entire country pro-Palestinian and then support for Israel would just crater. You know, it would go into a free fall. And there's something that's always bothered me, that we look down our nose at the Republicans. We look down at our nose at the evangelicals who support Israel for religious reasons, just like our Orthodox Jews support Israel for religious reasons, right? Or oppose them for religious reasons. They support Israel for the very same reason that we Jews do.

But somehow we find some, because it makes us uncomfortable. So we find a way to badmouth them. They are our bulwark in the United States of America. We should, God bless the evangelicals. God bless the Republicans. And not only that, they send their kids to fight too. Like, you know, that's a whole nother layer is that so many of the liberal intelligentsia and the elite, they don't send their kids to the army. It's the republican kids who are going to the army actually to be fair and minority kids go to the army um so i thought i had adhd what do you mean you went everywhere to the army you went to the army but get back to your point you shouldn't look down republicans right the point is that there's a there's a human weakness in in not appreciating the fact that the people that you're disparaging are actually responsible for your well-being, for your happy enjoyment of the United States of America.

They're sending their kids to the army. They're defending Israel. But look, all the people you're voting for stand for the opposite of those things. The reality is that a lot of people in the armed forces are African-American, Latino. I don't know if they're Democrats or Republicans. But we need to get past this. Everything is Republican and Democrat. We need to focus again.

Can I just go back to what you were saying about this? Leo and I, I was doing a show in San Diego. You know he's the important guest here. By the way, maybe, I don't know. Maybe we're not that off from here. I've been on your podcast when I wasn't the most important. Every guy you found from CNN. Get it out, get it out, God damn it.

No, no, no. I will tell you. We were staying in a hotel, and in the hotel, there was the 250-something anniversary of the United States Marines. And they had all these Marines in their full drag drag in the hole with the hat and the sword. Yeah, it's drag. It's high drag. It's like with buckles and schmuckles.

And Leo and I, reservations for dinner. So we're leaving. We left from the party level. And now we're in the middle of all of these Marines. And I yelled, Goldberg! Goldberg! Stephen Goldberg! There's no Goldberg there. There I yelled, Goldberg! Goldberg! Stephen Goldberg! There's no Goldberg there.

There's definitely no Goldberg. There's no Goldberg. You wanted to say, you wanted to... I'm thinking about the Marines in drag. I mean, I'm still wrestling with that.

No, we're all in... It was a great scene with Harry Enten and Anderson Cooper on CNN. And, you know, Harry was talking about football. He says, Anderson, do you like football?

He goes, I like the costume. Yeah. Which is also drag. Have you seen the... No, that's drag. Everything is... Everything you're... RuPaul says you're born in the rest of...

You're born naked and the rest of your life is drag. Whatever look you do to the... Let's not make too much of this notion that Jews don't serve in the army. We're certainly not as well represented as others. My dad served in the army. Bravo, mine too. That's a different generation.

Listen, I- We understand what you're saying. It's a whole different thing. Only leave the army thing out. Maybe that was my ADD. But there is, we should be scared of what it would mean if the Democrats,

if the Republicans were to become just as pro-Israel as the Democrats. And that ought to tell us something. There's something arrogant about the fact. As anti-Israel. As anti-Israel. No, I put it as pro-Israel because we're not very pro-Israel. Look, I think at the end of the day,

I hope the support for Israel is good. I didn't do what you said that. You said that very Talmudically. If you said that a different way, we'd be read the different... So say it normally. So you're saying... If the Republicans were to become as anti-Israel as the Democrats... That's it. Because you said it... Look, things

shift and they're somewhat cycles. Look, the truth of the matter is that Harry Truman recognized the state of Israel. John Kennedy provided him tremendous support. So did LBJ. So, like, look. I'm not talking about the 69 Mets had good pitching. It's not relevant to this.

It's current. It's what's happening now. It's what's happening now. Where are we now? Where's the fight? Like, what are we? The Democrats wouldn't even nominate Shapiro. We know why they wouldn't nominate Shapiro.

Josh is great. They were afraid of putting in the Republican convention. They had Israeli flags. They were petrified what they were facing in the Democratic convention. There was not going to be an Israeli flag. They are in a really, they're in a pickle. Look, I can't argue with you. Jonathan, by the way.

In the Republican Party, there's really something for everyone. And the Democrats are much more like, you know. So we heard for eight years that Trump was this anti-Semite. And lo and behold, it's the Democrats who can't tolerate anything Jewish at their convention. And the Republicans are like, Israel, Israel. And I'm saying there's something really wrong. People tend to see things in a binary way. Even the most sophisticated journalists, they say, OK, which category?

Trump is in the bad category. So therefore, anything that anybody says bad about him is true. There's no attempt at nuance. He's got to be an anti-Semite. He's got to be pro-Nazi. He's got to be this. He's got to be that. Where that actually wasn't describing who he actually was.

He was actually the most pro-Israel president we've had in our lifetimes. And his daughter is Jewish. And Jared Kushner and everybody around him is Jewish. Now, I have a lot to say about MAGA after Trump, the Tucker Carlson's, the Candace Owens, the J.D. Vance. I'm very scared of them. So you understand. So look what you're saying. So you're saying.

But he gives it to everybody. You're saying, here's Jared Kushner in his life, and he has Ivanka Trump in his life, and he's got that in his life. But then, you know, who else does he have in his life? Matt Gaetz. So whatever that whole craziness is also there, so there's something for everybody.

When he said Matt Gaetz, nothing crazy could have come out of his mouth except for the words Orville Redenbacher. But he gave that to them. All the Mishigoyim, here you go, Matt Gaetz. By the way, Orville Redenbacher, not an anti-Semite. I'm just going to go out there

and say that. Not an anti-Semite. And a maker of a lovely popcorn. A lovely popcorn. So what do you want to say about that? About Orville? No. It's got to be

uneasy for an organization. I know you don't say you're red team, blue team, but nevertheless, the... Look, I'm pretty honest where I come from. So, if you don't know, I worked in the West Wing for President Obama doing economic policy. I ran the innovation office.

And one of my first measures, one of my first decisions when I came out of ADL was I came out against the Iran deal. That was President Obama's big thing. I burned a lot of bridges when I did that. How did you feel when he gave that first announcement after October 7th? It's true that when they did October 7th- Sad. Sad. But what? Sad. Finish it.

He said it's horrible what happened on October 7th, but it's also true that the occupation is unbearable. I mean, look, at the end of the day, there is no rationale. There is no justification. There is no excuse for the barbarity and horror that happened on October 7th. And it frustrates me that the Secretary General of the UN

or a former president of the United States or ordinary college students don't seem to understand that. Their rape is not resistance. I'm sorry. Do I need to explain that kidnapping is not a normal course of action under any circumstances? And by the way, do you know how many Israeli soldiers were in Gaza on October the 6th? That would be zero. How many Israeli civilians were in Gaza on October the 6th? That would be zero. How many Israeli civilians were in Gaza

on October the 6th? Zero. Other than the ones who'd been kidnapped by Hamas. So like, look, I have no patience, Noam. Zero for these people, again, who like the moral confusion just nauseates me and I have no patience for it. I'm with you.

And I feel like, I wonder sometimes, whether fighting anti-Semitism is the most effective way to make our point. I hear the accusation. Well, let me just say, I'm the grandson of a Holocaust survivor. My grandfather was from Germany and he told me when I was a young manust survivor my grandfather was from germany and he

told me when i was a young man that he thought germany would be in was in the best country in the world for the jews until it wasn't and all of his family was incinerated in auschwitz and i'm the husband of an iranian jew who came to this country in 1987 88 88 i think, who had lived through the Islamic Revolution and she lived through the Iran-Iraq War. And my father-in-law thought that America was the greatest country in the world for the Jews. Sorry, thought that Iran was a great country for the Jews until it wasn't.

So I happen to believe that America is a great country for the Jews. But the idea that this will just last forever is a fiction. The idea that, but the idea that this will just last forever is a fiction. The idea that there's some natural law, that my, look, my grandfather never would have guessed that his children would be born in America, grandchildren would be born in America,

me and my brother and my cousins. My father-in-law never would have guessed that his grandchildren, my boys, and my nieces and nephews would be born in America, and I don't take for granted, and you shouldn't, and you shouldn't, that nephews would be born in America. And I don't take for granted, and you shouldn't, that you're, and you shouldn't, that your grandchildren will be born here unless we fight for what we have. So like when you say to me, like the auntie said, like, look, I feel like

I am on a mission because I want my grandchildren to be born in this country to be as Jewish as they want to be, you know? They could be atheist cultural Jews, they could be Hasidim, you know, at 770 in Brooklyn, but at the end of the day, my job here is to protect the Jewish people. Period, end of story. As a matter of strategy. How do you do that?

So give me a second here. Sure. Because the man's on a mission. The man just said, my mission. That's a huge statement to make. So now they call you and they tell you listen over here we had this incident it goes on your heat map you verified it how do you help do you send security out do you help like we know there's a jewish event happening will you put security there how does the adl help adl does three things okay protect we advocate we advocate, and we educate. So first we protect.

So in addition to all the tracking and the measuring, I have a whole team of analysts, Smody, who are literally 24-7, day and night, tracking the extremists, left-wing anti-Zionists, right-wing extremists, armed militia people, like radical anti-Westerners, Islamists. Yeah, we know who. So literally, they're tracking them on the public web,

on the private web, on the dark web. Last year alone, we gave almost 3,000 tips to law enforcement where we identified threats. We could neutralize them before they happened. Number two, we train all the law enforcement. We're the largest trainer of law enforcement in America on extremism and hate. Last year, something like 20,000, 25,000 officers

were trained by ADL. Number three, when I talk about advocating, like we will not just show up in Congress or in the state house. Like we are suing the bad guys. Like we are litigating against colleges and universities, against K through 12 school districts. We're suing right now the Islamic Republic of Iran

in federal court for their role in 10-7. And on top of that that like when it happens in a school we educate adl is one of the largest providers in america they have anti-hate content in schools in 2024 alone four and a half million kids got adl education so like we show up yeah that's what makes us different than everybody else like when shit happened can i say that okay when shit happens when your private school that? Okay, when shit happens, when you're private school in New York or at your public university

or at your workplace, ADL shows up. We show up with programs, show up with policies. That's what we do. So now you understand. When you're making a donation to ADL, that's where it goes.

100%. So as a matter of strategy, and this actually touches on what Elon Musk got in trouble for that you argued with him. We should get to Elon Musk before we end the podcast. When you tell a Southerner who wants his Confederate statue or wants his Confederate flag,

you're a racist. Their eyes glaze over, and they're like, fuck you. I'm not a racist. And that's their attitude. But if you say to them, listen, I'm not saying you're a racist, but you have to understand that you have neighbors who are descendants of slaves.

Don't you understand what this represents to them? And they'll say, oh, yeah, I get that. Maybe I will take it down. And I feel like with the accusation of anti-Semitism is often not as powerful as the demonstration of the anti-Semitism. We're not good at that. And part of the reason we're not good at that... What do you mean by the demonstration?

Well, I say part of the reason we're not good at that is because our own children don't know the ABCs of our own history. They don't know the first goddamn thing about Israel. They don't know how it is that the territories became occupied. They don't know the first goddamn thing about Israel. They don't know how it is that the territories became occupied. They don't know how hard Israel tried to give it back. They don't know that Gaza's not occupied.

They don't know anything. So all they have left to say, oh, you're an anti-Semite. And people say, and the people who are criticizing them, many of them are not anti-Semitic and many of them are filled with this ridiculous

revisionist version of history right that we have not educated our own children let alone the christian children we don't our own children don't know how to defend israel and this right is a huge problem and we're not going to overcome it by calling people names look so there's a lot to kind of again like unpacking that so number one let's acknowledge like a lot of american like high school students don't know how many amendments are on the constitution like literally don't know what you when the what the constitutional congress was so let's just acknowledge number one our kids are learning history not from textbooks or the times but from tiktok we all have a problem yeah number two like we need to be active on tiktok well there's that

as well the number two like there is more i feel like like i'm sitting next to modi for god's sakes there is more boom there is like we have fowder today we have gal gadot today yeah we have like goldies today like there is more we have tagli and in shin shinim like there is more stuff going on with israel today than there ever was in our history but we also need to admit like i need I need to be a CEO of ADL. Missions. You forgot the missions. The missions. The women that went on the mission.

I love what you said on the women's missions. You'd think they were flying F-16s over targets. No, we're going on a mission to Israel. Go ahead. I love that. But, like, look, what I'm going to say here is that, like, I think the jewish establishment needs to acknowledge we have failed we haven't succeeded we haven't succeeded

in giving our kids the kind of education and training they need to be effective in this world now i think the one challenge is that most of us in america didn't realize that we were dealing with not just an entrenched but a hostile militant movement that seeks, again, not equality, but superiority over us as Jews. Again, this is why I think anti-Zionism is so pernicious and so dangerous. Zionism didn't start, you know, no, I'm in 1948. Zionism didn't start with Theodor Herzl.

Zionism is essential to our identity as Jews. Next year in Jerusalem. Baruch Hashem, right? Like, in every Sidurim, in every shul on the planet Earth, on every page, it's like Yerushalayim, Zion, you know, Eretz Yisrael.

Okay, so, but that, to finish you off, I'll re-zamp this around. I'm on the next level of you. Yes, it's important to have the number one goal for Jews. Yeah. Okay, it's not Jewish education

and Jewish preventing anti-Semitism and all that. The number one goal of Jews is Mashiach. We should be living in a Messianic era. And that's all that Yerushalayim stuff means. We're living in Jerusalem because of the Messiah, not because

it's our land. We can go move there now if we want. But to live there, it really is a metaphor for being in a messianic era. And that's when everybody works in harmony. Can I ask a religious question? Is it a Jewish law to

live in the land of Israel? No, unless the Messiah is here. So when you're saying, let's go next year in jerusalem it's like saying next year let's be in a messianic era correct it's it's the hope it's the yearning for moshiach and so i do think by the way like look most i mean i i keep kosher i don't blame anyone who doesn't but like many jewish people have lost their rituals and don't like aren't in touch with torah yeah like but then on that note, I'll tell you,

it's wonderful to see sometimes the whole Jewish experience is going to see Modi or maybe just buying a challah and putting it on the counter on Friday, not eating it, but it's something that reminds me of Shabbat. It's not all or none. I always say we're not the chosen people, we're the choosing people. This works for me on Friday,

but on Thursday I'm going to eat pork. So whatever works for you, you do. And just remember that you're Jewish. I don't eat milk with meat, but I do eat milk with meat, rather. But I draw the line at boiling a calf in its mother's milk. Okay, so everybody has their own thing.

I'm not so big into boiling calves myself. Never boil the calf in its mother's milk. Are you almost over with the podcast? No, we've got to keep going. How much long does the podcast go we got three hours i just i want to hear lex friedman i want i want to hear what you feel about elon musk what do i feel about him because i know because you went to war with him and now you've been defending him i wouldn't say a war a little skirmish maybe i wouldn't say a war yeah look elon is extraordinary guy on many levels i don't agree with everything he have you met him in person mother uh i've met him via zoom

and talked to him on the phone and texted them and stuff like that look he's a complicated guy he's an extraordinary entrepreneur i mean he's an ingenious inventor and uh i don't always agree with his politics. And he is a complete upgrade from the MyPillow guy that Trump was hanging out with. He's the big upgrade from the MyPillow guy. No, I'm going to laugh, you son of a bitch. That's funny. I love that.

Miserable. No, I'm going to laugh. He had texted. I'll be in Phoenix on February. Phoenix, February. He had texted a year'll be in Phoenix on February. Phoenix, February. He had texted a year ago along the same lines. He said, the ADL unjustly attacks the majority of the West, despite the majority of the West supporting the Jewish people in Israel. This is because they cannot, by their own tenets, criticize the minority groups who are their primary threat.

It's not right. It needs to stop. So what Musk was saying was that the ADL, now this has changed since October 7th, that the ADL was holding its fire against the people who hated the Jews the most. And then he retweeted some white supremacists. But I believe that he didn't realize

who he was retweeting. Again, I don't know what's in his head or his heart. I can't believe he has time to tweet and look at the tweet we don't know. Well, we do know. It takes everything I have to look at that thing. I don't know who's time to tweet. But we do know that he made a beautiful video

complaining about the way people are raised with anti-Semitism in Gaza, that he's gone to visit Israel. Yeah. He went to Auschwitz. It's mati velo mati. It's really mati velo mati. It is mati velo mati. It's that. It really doesn't seem like he's... Yeah. He went to Auschwitz. Mati velo mati. It's really mati velo mati. It is mati velo mati.

It's that. It really doesn't seem like he's even at all unfond of Jews. It seems like he's pretty sympathetic to... Modi, you say what? I'm in Baltimore on...

On March 1st, I'm in Baltimore. So go ahead, tell us about... My map. I love... It's the Modi map. No, this is the map that is on UTA,

on Modi's comedy touring map. But do not look for Modi in Ottawa, apparently, or is this only in America? We did Ottawa. We did Ottawa. It was a lovely Jewish community there. Lovely, lovely. That's what I hear.

Look, I'm going to tell you something, so a couple things. And don't forget the salute. No. So look, number one, I think Elon is a complicated guy. I was public about what I thought about the salute, which I think...

What'd you say? I didn't think it was intentional. But what's real is the impact that many Jewish people felt was, and what many white supremacists felt was, he was singing their praises. So look, at the end of the day, I'm going to judge Elon not by what's in, again, I don't know what's in his head or in his heart. I'm judging by what he does.

He went to Israel. He went to Auschwitz. I appreciate that. He's taken a stronger line in some ways on X. And on the other hand, there's stuff on X that's really still very bad. So there's room for improvement. But, you know, we're going to talk about this and we're going to push on this as much as we can and just hold people accountable

for what they did. I still call it Twitter, the first of all we there's a lot of photos going around of people with their arms out like it's very easy like you're waving uh the picture of kamala harris doing it many many people you're waving and and no no some of those are quite anywhere but there is one of of of Tim Waltz actually doing exactly the same thing as Musk's video. The photo of somebody waving is not what Musk did. Musk did a whole thing. Yeah.

Look, again, I think it's not that useful to psychoanalyze what he was saying, because we don't know. But here's what I do know. Let me just say one thing. But how come he didn't clarify? How come he wasn't like,

I know a lot of you guys? He did. Like, no, look. He said something about the thing. Oh, he said, my heart, I'm sending you my heart i'm sending you my heart by the way i just so you you know when i finished my show i i standing ovation

and then and then i put the mic down and i do like thank you so much i really say that i really and you see it in my gestures look i think the reality is is that i think at adl i could set balls and strikes i don't know he was thinking. I think it appeared to be unintentional, but the impact was real. And that's that. At the end of the day, by the same time, when he did the thing about the, he did the word play on the names of Nazis

you'd see the next day, I called that out because it was wrong. Oh, well, I thought it was funny. The impact was real. Hold on. Something else. I don't think the Holocaust is a punchline. Well, but Mel Brooks did.

Mel Brooks made jokes like that. I always say if you can include the Holocaust in a joke, do it. So people know and remember it. And then some people who don't know what you're talking about, they Google it. I have now in my act, I'm using as a doctor's name, Joseph Mengele. He's one of your doctors. Right. So you saw the show, right?

So people who know who it is, like that. And those who don't know, they go, who's Joseph Mengele? And then you can go Google who Joseph Mengele is. Candace Owens says Mengele is a hoax. I want to defend Musk a little bit more strongly. Candace Owens is just the worst. I have big problems with her. She went to the same high school as both me and Allie.

Really? Yeah, Stanford High. Were you guys in class together? No, this was years after I had graduated. She went to Stanford High. Yeah, she did. I want to say in defense of Musk, and then I'll be finished. I think it's not enough to say we don't know what's in his heart.

We actually do know what's in his heart. No, i just meant with respect to when he made that gesture was thinking there are plenty of people who i know who have who know musk who've criticized what he did there are other people that i know who know musk who said it wasn't it was unintentional look at the end of the day i don't think it it serves us well in this moment to be going back in time to try to do the forensics on that let Let's focus forward on where we are. As a comedian, I think to myself, that whole day, could you imagine I'm sure it was like, Musk

was like, I'm going to do this thing here. Trump's like, are you going to do it? No, you won't do it. You're not going to do it. And then he did it early in the morning, right? And later on, they go, did Elon do it? He did it. He did the thing. He did it. I knew he was going to do it. He did it. I only want to say as to the issue of whether the impact was real, that's not actually fair to him because the impact was real only because people reported him as having doing something,

which is no evidence he did. And if someone on the left had done that, someone who was not in that category of people, binary that we decide are bad people, there would have been no story about it. And there would have been no impact. The impact is fabricated by people who hate Musk. That's what Bob said. Look, I will just say that ADL saw someone do that in the same way that he did, who was not, you know.

If Barack had done it, you would have just assumed that, you would have made the assumption that it was not the Nazi soldier. There's people in, like, camps in the middle of like nowhere would they do it with a nazi shirt on you know i want to thank you from my heart this is not there's nothing nazi about it right so that so we're in agreement on that biden famously once said to people if if you don't vote if you don't vote for me you ain't black right right this is exactly the mirror image of what trump said if you don't vote for me you're a bad jew there was no wild accusations of biden being a racist impact bro he said because everybody assumed that biden said it must be okay everybody they're dying to catch musk on something i'm not a huge musk fan obviously you love his

automobile i love his automobile i love accomplishment i have a tesla it's the best thing i've ever owned in my life. But obviously, he's erratic. He tweets carelessly. Again, I stand by what we said. And what we said was that we thought it was not intended to be. And yet, at the same time, the impact, again, whether intentional or not, it happened. People went crazy with it. And now we just got to move forward.

Yeah, exactly. But I admire you for standing up for him. I thought it was great that you guys did that. And it had a big impact that you did that. Well, of course. Yeah. So look, I want to make sure that I mention on the podcast, Never Is Now.

So, you know, ADL runs. We're going to pull that up on the screen. Oh, super great. Let's do it. So ADL runs every year. Modi, we would love to have you i was going to discuss it with you in a minute let's talk how we haven't no it's not on the heat map but i want to move that the fact that i have never done an ad i have done

everything from abc aj bj cj gj jj c gcc i how have i never been on the adl stage give me your hand i am going i'm not looking for my hand America listen and listen well donate to the ADL so they can afford to bring me to don't listen to me make Mashiach energy happen make a comedy show at the ADL get your donors

all the big donors should make a check shut up for a second let him tell about the event please ADL runs every year the largest conference in the world on anti-Semitism. It's called Never Is Now. We'll have 5,000 people at the Javits Center on March 3rd and 4th. No. 2025. And God willing, we'll have Modi later.

So here's what they do now, Norm. Listen to this. Instead of hiring me for these things, they say, we're going to give you an award. They gave me some push. You're not. Did someone tell them? Is that what it is? They bring an award. Hold on a second. Modi, I just want to say

to you, so we're doing this big thing and I want to tell you right now, we'd like to give you the Leadership in Comedy Award. It's a new award. You'll be our inaugural recipient. We call be our inaugural recipient. We call it Champions of Comedy. Lodi, ladies and gentlemen,

I'm breaking news right now. We'd like to give you this award. I'm breaking news to you right now. Call Leo and make sure the date is available. I can't. So let me tell you. Bring my map back on. Bring your map.

So like, Noam, I'm excited to have the chance to share this with the audience. It's a really big deal. Again, we'll have a lot of folks. We've created a discount code for your listeners.

So if they go to ADL.org, they can register and use the code COMEDY20 and they'll get a discounted rate on tickets that's available only to the listeners of this podcast. And what's the date of this event?

It's March 3rd and 4th, Monday, Tuesday, 2025. At the Javits Center. At the Javits Center. In New York City. In New York City. I apologize too for not, if I'd known that I would have put it further towards the beginning of the podcast.

It's okay. Fall off and maybe there's some way we can. Bring this to the front, yeah. Put it towards the front. People are gonna be riveted to this whole thing. I mean, I don't think. March 3rd and 4th thing March 3rd and 4th Check the date

I'm in the date I'm going to text Leo myself Mr. Greenblatt I really am Very honored to meet you And It seems like the organization Is becoming a little bit more like Switzerland

Now Really kind of not Wanting to get sucked into the gravitational force of either party and either party's agenda, really just clear-eyed on what's best for not just the Jewish people, but for people who are victims of bigotry and hatred anywhere they are. Look, if we haven't been true to that, then we're at fault. If we haven't been effective in defending everyone,

we've got to own that. The reality is I get up every day and from the time I lift my head from the pillow to the time I put my head in the pillow at night, I have one job to do, which is protect the Jewish people. That's it. To bring us closer to Mashiach.

And I have a job, too, and I wake up in the morning to sell tickets. You said to protect Jewish people, but also to fight bigotry. Let me be clear. I believe I can best protect the Jewish people by fighting bigotry and all forms of hate in America. I think, again, America can live up to its potential

and its promise when it is a place where, regardless of where you're from or how you pray or who you love, when you are able to show up as your full self. So, yeah, I'm against not just anti-Semitism, but all forms of bigotry and hate. And by pursuing justice and fair treatment to all, I can protect the Jewish people. You alluded to, you know, Germany was the best place for the Jews until it wasn't. Right. Iran was the best place. If you believe that America could go down that path,

does that inform your opinion on the Second Amendment, or do you have an opinion? Two things. Number one, I literally wrote a book called It Could Happen Here. I wrote it two years ago. I can't believe I didn't bring copies for all of you focused on this very topic because I think it could happen here.

With respect to the Second Amendment, look, I think Jews have the right, like every other American, to have access to firearms, and they can do that. I don't like- The Second Amendment, the guns. Guns. The guns. Jews are buying guns like I don't like- The Second Amendment, the guns. Guns.

Jews are buying guns like you've never known them. They're buying, not guns, they're buying cannons. Cannons. Cannons. Buying shotguns, I can't tell you. How do you know this? I know all of them. They're buying the number one top, on Madison Avenue,

there's a shop above this clothing store, and every Syrian Jew has, and I was there because I saw it like my friend was going and I go, where are you going? I'm going upstairs. They sell shotguns. You don't have to aim. You just, boom, and the whole,

you can blow the barn off, right? Shotguns do that. And this guy comes over and is explaining to him how the gun works and the barrel and this and then he's looking at him and I said, are you listening? He goes, no, no, it's all on YouTube, it's all on YouTube. He's gonna go home and play on YouTube with this gun.

He's gonna blow his wife's kitchen into the living room. So look, I believe the second. But they're buying guns. To answer your thing, Jews are buying guns. Yeah, and I believe the Second Amendment, but the reality is I would also just say there are 340 million Americans, give or take. There are over 400 million guns in the United States.

I think that's crazy. I think it's a problem. I don't have the answer to it, but it worries me a great deal when there are more firearms in this society than people. That's the wrong calibration. Whoever is into guns doesn't have just one. They have a whole bunch. When we were looking for a house in Connecticut,

you get to some of the houses house and you see this massive, like, what's it called? Like a vault, the vault for the guns. So whoever's a gun owner has more than one. A locker, a locker. A big locker, a safe, like a real safe. And that's where they keep the guns. So we knew we were in a house of a gun owner.

We got to wrap it up. I actually don't think it can happen here. And that's not my worry. Good. It depends on what it is, I think. I mean, I don't see Jews being rounded up and killed. Would you have ever guessed two years ago that Jews at UCLA would be blocked from walking across the quad? Would you have ever guessed that at Columbia that Jews would be harassed on site?

Yes, yes. And Perry, I will tell you, that didn't shock me at all. That kind of anti-Semitism I felt was right below the surface on the left all along. So that's what I say, the expression never again. So the never again is not that they're not going to beat us and harass us on campuses or try to fight us or kidnap us. That's going to happen. The never again is you don't just get away with it. So all of those universities. I like that a lot. All the universities that had that situation,

three presidents, we saw those ugly women taken off, right? The three presidents of Harvard, MIT, and UPenn, those novellas, they were taken out, right? When you do stuff like this, there's consequences now. That's the never again. That's the never again. That's the never again. Bravo. Yeah.

Bravo. So that's making never again work for us, and I really like that a lot. ModiLive.com. All of your tickets. You can get them. Wrap it up, Dan. Go ahead. Well, I promised you the most Jewish podcast episode we've ever done,

and I delivered in grand style. We thank Modi. Tickets available at modilive.com Instagram modi underscore live We thank Jonathan Greenblatt from the Anti-Defamation League

for joining us. And of course Perry Elleniel and Noam. And Teoni. Tiana. Tiana, sorry. Tiana, I just met her. Tiana, she's doing our sound work backstage or back behind the ball there,

behind the partition. And Periel for making sure that no camera was behind my head for my bald spot. That's it for us. Thank you. We'll see you next time. Bye-bye.